Federal 100: William J. Tinston

When DLA’s director of enterprise solutions retired, William Tinston was not your typical acting director. Rather than simply holding the fort until a replacement was selected, Tinston did everything he could to ensure a smooth transition.

During the transition, almost all key management positions turned over to newly promoted personnel. Tinston mentored the new employees and filled in as acting program executive officer as needed. Meanwhile, DLA’s 3,000-person IT team provided a sustained 99 percent availability for the agency’s networks and business systems, which serve military personnel worldwide.

Tinston also spearheaded a number of efforts that expanded the agency’s network availability to allow secure access by personnel in remote areas and upgraded DLA’s Enterprise Business System, which is considered one of the Defense Department’s most successful enterprise resource planning tools.

FCW investigated efforts by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to improve a joint data repository on military and veteran suicides. Something as impersonal and mundane as incomplete datasets could be exacerbating a national tragedy.